Green Speed Karting

Team News - Brian Stewart Racing Karting Championship Race #1

GreenSpeed Caps Off the Opening Round of the Brian Stewart Racing Karting Championship with Several Strong Performances and Momentum to Carry into Round Two

GreenSpeed Karting rolled into Sutton Ontario this past weekend with high expectations for a strong opening round at BRSKC Race 1 event at 3-S Go karts in Sutton, Ontario. Coming together as a complete team for the first time this season, spirits were high among both veterans and rookies as the team started to bond and work together under the leadership of Aaron De Heus, Mike Roth, Ted Greenwood and visiting tuner Leonard D’arrigo. Kicking off the weekend by donning some TonyKart race team gear supplied by GreenSpeed to all of its Drivers, the team got together for a quick team photo shoot, and then got down to business.

With only 12 entries on the weekend GreenSpeed was able to capture 3 poles, 3 off-poles, 3 wins, 4 podiums and 8 top ten finishes. Here is how the weekend shook down...

Saturday Action

ICC

GreenSpeeds’s veteran shifter pilot Ryan Horses made a huge statement early in the event by Qualifying off pole by a mere 4/100’s of a second behind Veteran driver David Ostella. The TonyKart Racer EVR and TM engine package was solid and Ryan looked to be on pace for a solid weekend. In the prefinal race a great start shot Ryan out front early in the race, however a steering column problem forced Ryan to retire early. Contact with another kart in the final would end Ryan’s run for the day, but Ryan definitely established himself as a contender in this class with lots of BSRKC race action still left this season.

Rotax DD2

Establishing himself as the top DD2 pilot in North America after a Canadian National title in 2008 and FWT title in early 2009, Darren White did not disappoint when he put his TonyKart Krypton KRX DD2 on Pole, by a little over a 10th. In the prefinal, despite finisihing 2nd, Darren widened the gap on his competitors with a fast lap nearly 2/10s clear. In the final Darren owned the field again setting fast lap and taking the win by more than a straightaway, more than 8 seconds gone when the P2 kart crossed the line.

“My TonyKart really came in” remarked Darren, who set his fastest lap in lap 19 of the final.

Rotax Jr.

Two rookie drivers made their Brian Stewart debuts in Junior Rotax on a pair of Racer EVR’s. Ethan Livingston and Cameron Morrison, both coming of championship 2008 campaigns, stepped right into Junior Rotax action with solid performances. Qualifying 11th and 12th respectively, only 3/10’s off pole in the largest filed of the day. Sitting side by side in row eleven for the prefinal, disaster struck early as another driver took both Cameron and Ethan out while attempting to go underneath both for a three wide play in corner one. But this is where the story really was written. Despite dropping to the back two karts in the field of 32 by a fairly significant gap, Cam was able to work quickly through traffic and earn a 20th place finish in the short 10 lap heat. Ethan suffered damage from the earlier incident and lost a nose cone, which eventually caused a DQ for a black flag infraction.

In the final Ethan was working an incredible run from the back of the field, to 14th position before retiring back to 21st on the last corner with a spin that caused him to lose the incredible gains made over the first 19 laps. Cameron Morrison also laid down a great comeback run moving from 20th to 8th in the final. These two rookie Junior Rotax teammates also recorded the 5th and 6th fastest laps in the final filed of

Rotax Sr.

The busiest field for GreenSpeed on the day was in Rotax Senior as 4 divers lined up on Grid for qualifying action in another deep field. Darren White, Melissa Curran, Jonathon Treadwell and Marc Stehle all were ready to take their Racer EVR’s chasiss to the front of the pack. In a field of 32 all four qualified inside the top 15, with Darren White again on pole for the second time in the day. Marc Stehle slotted in 12th , with Jonathon Treadwell 14th, and Melissa Curran following in 15th spot, setting up pre-final action. It was Jonathon Treadwell with the top team performance in prefinal action cutting his starting position in half for the final by moving from 15th to 7th over the 10 lap pre race. More misfortune would bite the team, this time for Darren White as he was late coming to grid forcing him to the very back of the pack for the heat race after having secured pole. Darren drove a very strong pre final moving through half the field to close out in P15. Marc Stehle suffered a DNF while Melissa Curran wrapped up the heat in 21st position.

In the main, strong performances were laid down by all team drivers with Jonathon Treadwell again making moves, narrowly missing the podium with a 4th place finish at the stripe. Melissa Curran also had a great run from 21st to 10th, while Marc Stehle followed in 11th. Darren White saw his main shortened considerably with only a 2 lap run before contact with another kart forced Darren out of action for the day.

Mini Max saw a guest appearance by Trevor Rancier making his TonyKart / Rotax debut. Trevor had a solid debut, running in 2nd place for qualifying, pre-final and final race action. Having never driven a Rotax kart before, Trevor was able to use his smoothness, patience and race craft to run up front all day.

Sunday Action

Jr. Heavy

Another Rookie appearance for Cameron Morrison came in BSRKC Junior Heavy action as the 2008 Bryan Stewart Junior Light Champion made his third move up the Honda ladder in just three seasons. Qualifying 6th amongst the usual suspects in Honda, the ground was being laid for a great prefinal and final race with times very tight among the top 10. With little seat time this season due to a conflicting hockey schedule, a last minute decision to run saw returning Junior Heavy pilot Justine Treadwell qualify 17th and looking to make some moves in the pre-final.

In the pre-final Cameron held his own slotting in 7th on the inside row for the final. Justine was also starting her move up the grid working from 17th to 14th in heat action.

In the main Cam showed he had no intention of settling for a learning season in Junior Heavy, putting his TonyKart Psylo in 2nd spot early in the race with a great 2 position pass on the grid corner . It was evident early in the race however that the race leader was walking away, and the real race was in 3-4 kart pack Cam was leading. Holding in the top three through most of the race, another grid corner pass moved Cam back into second with a lap to go, but the 4 pack was again nose to tail and the fight was on. Leaving the door open in the hairpin before the barn corner allowed two karts by and some more dicing in the grid corner moved Cam back to 5th at the line.

Justine Treadwell continued her march up the field, making quick work in lap one to move into P9 from 14th spot. Justine diced it up in a 3 kart pack that seemed to trade positions every lap. Running between 8th and 11th spot Justine battled for a hard earned 11th place finish.

Sr. Light

In Senior Light, the betting line was starting in the paddock, but no cash was laid down as it was hard to find anyone who wanted to bet against Jonathon Treadwell. Qualifying off pole by three 100’s, Jonathon grabbed the lead on lap 7 of the prefinal, and hung on for a close win at the wire. In the final, after slotting in 3rd and trading positions between P2 and P3 over the first seven laps Jonathon’s kart really came in and he made two moves in laps 8 and 9 to grab the lead. Despite a very close battle and nail biting last lap, Jon used his racing smarts and knowledge of the Sutton track to fend off any attempts to steal the win, crossing in P1 – equaling his season capping win in Downsview in 2008.

Sr. TaG

In Senior Tag, March Stehle absolutely destroyed the field in qualifying, more than 7/10’s clear. Mark had a clean sweep on the day also leading every single lap of both the prefinal and final for a solid opening run in this class. A veteran driver, Mark came into the day with a lot of confidence in his TonyKart Package and despite sticking his race motor in morning practice, was still able to dominate with his number two power plant on board.

“Overall we were extremely happy with our performance” noted team owner Mike Morrison. “Half of our total entries qualified on the front row of their respective classes, and 8 of our 12 entries recorded top 10 finishes. Although it’s part of racing for sure, the bad luck bug bit us a bit hard this weekend. There is no doubt in my mind that we established ourselves as contenders in every class we ran this weekend. A lot of stopwatches will definitely be on our drivers in the second round of the BSRKC in Hamilton in two weeks”

GreenSpeed would like to thank team drivers Darren White and Ryan Horses who despite having no races on Sunday, both made the trip to Sutton to support our drivers who were running the Sunday schedule. A huge thanks also goes out to Aaron De Heus, Mike Roth, Leonard D’arrigo and Ted Greenwood for supporting the team off track and giving our drivers the set-up they needed to compete. For more information on GreenSpeed and becoming a team driver, please visit www.greenspeedkarting.com